Death of Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, from India, ignited outrage after fellow officer was recorded making ‘appalling’ remarks about case

Prosecutors in Washington state said on Wednesday they will not file felony charges against a Seattle police officer who struck and killed a graduate student from India while responding to an overdose call – a case that attracted widespread attention after another officer was recorded making callous remarks about it.

Officer Kevin Dave was driving 74mph (119km/h) on a street with a 25mph (40km/h) speed limit in a police SUV before he hit 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk on 23 January 2023.

In a memo to the Seattle police department on Wednesday, the King county prosecutor’s office noted that Dave had on his emergency lights, that other pedestrians reported hearing his siren, and that Kandula appeared to try to run across the intersection after seeing his vehicle approaching. She might also have been wearing wireless earbuds that could have diminished her hearing, they noted.

For those reasons, a felony charge of vehicular homicide was not warranted. “There is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Dave was consciously disregarding safety,” the memo said.

  • BrotherL0v3@lemmy.world
    1552·
    9 months ago

    Something you hear a lot from EMTs is that they take a lot of care not to make a medical emergency worse by adding to the number of victims. “Scene safety” is a big thing, the logic being that if you try to help someone in an unsafe way, you may end up just adding to the problem.

    You’d think the same would apply to cops? Doing 75 in a 25 seems like the same kind of thing, especially in an area with pedestrians around. Doing 50 over to get to someone that needs help and hitting someone along the way isn’t actually helping.

    Oh, also:

    Kandula’s death ignited outrage, especially after a recording from another officer’s body-worn camera surfaced last September, in which that officer laughed and suggested that Kandula’s life had “limited value” and the city should “just write a check”.

    Jesus Christ, fuck the police.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
      74·
      9 months ago

      That second cop is the vice president of the Seattle police union. The person he was talking to on the phone when he minimized the death and talked about how worthless she was? The president of the police union.

      • Tujio@lemmy.world
        291·
        9 months ago

        Seattle PD is pretty fucking bad.

        Seattle Police Officer’s Guild is even worse.

        The leadership at SPOG is about as bad a it gets in big cities. Look at anything that Mike Solan has done in his career, but especially look into his words and actions around the BLM riots and CHOP. It’s fucking embarrassing that a city of our caliber has a police force of their caliber.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
          17·
          9 months ago

          Seattle was also under an injunction from the Department of Justice for repeated rights violations as was Portland Police Bureau. It seems the police in many leftist cities are exceptionally heinous and I’m sure both of these departments are full of Proud Boys and their ilk.

          • Bibliotectress@lemmy.world
            4·
            9 months ago

            It seems the police in many leftist cities are exceptionally heinous and I’m sure both of these departments are full of Proud Boys and their ilk.

            You’re right. I’m from Chicago and the cops there are pretty bad. New York is bad, too. Maybe it’s their safe space? Or it’s cops everywhere. I’m not really sure.

    • bl4ckblooc@lemmy.world
      26·
      9 months ago

      I’ve seen this in the way that police drive in my city compared to other emergency responders.

      About two years ago, there was an incident in a town south of me that required the strategic response unit or whatever term they are calling themselves. On my way home from work I see some huge police vehicles start coming down the highway behind me, so I pull over. But this is an 8-lane highway in town, at an intersection that is red so there isn’t a lot of room for everyone to pull over.

      Usually when this happens (this is the main highway/road through town, and the ambulances need to use it all the time) the emergency vehicle will slowly weave its way through traffic, as people who couldn’t pull over the the side of the road made space however they could. If that means driving on the wrong side of the road for 100 metres, they will.

      These ‘specially trained’ police officers however, came to a complete stop multiple times behind vehicles, then starting blaring their horns to make the vehicles move even when there wasn’t really a spot they could move to. These cops refused to drive in any other lane other than the left most lane.

      The next day an article came out, saying that the incident was resolved without this special unit because they didn’t get there in time.

    • Coreidan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      9 months ago

      The difference is that EMTs mission is to help people. Cops aren’t there to help anyone. They are there to keep poor people in order